A School History of the United States eBook

2. That the Federal government must protect slavery
“on the high seas, in the territories, and wherever
else its constitutional authority extends.”

Both majority and minority agreed in asserting

1. That the Personal Liberty laws of the free
states “are hostile in their character, subversive
of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their effect.”

2. That Cuba ought to be acquired by the United
States.

3. That a railroad ought to be built to the Pacific.

Their agreement was a minor matter. Their disagreement
was so serious that when the minority could not have
its way, it left the convention, met in another hall,
and adopted its resolutions.

The majority of the convention then adjourned to meet
at Baltimore, June 18. 1860. As it was then apparent
that Douglas would be nominated, another split occurred,
and the few Southern men attending, together with
some Northern delegates, withdrew. Those who remained
nominated Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson.

The second group of seceders met in Baltimore, adopted
the platform of the first group of seceders from the
Charleston convention, and nominated John C. Breckinridge,
of Kentucky, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon.

[Illustration: A Lincoln]

%401. The Constitutional Union Party.%—­Meanwhile
(May 9) another party, calling itself the National
Constitutional Union party, met at Baltimore.
These men were the remnants of the old Whig and American
or Know-nothing parties. They nominated John
Bell, of Tennessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts,
and declared for “the Constitution of the country,
the union of the states, and the enforcement of the
laws.”

%402. Election of Lincoln.%—­The Republican
party met in convention at Chicago on May 16, and
nominated Abraham Lincoln, and Hannibal Hamlin of
Maine. It

1. Repudiated the principles of the Dred Scott
decision.

2. Demanded the admission of Kansas as a free
state.

3. Denied all sympathy with any kind of interference
with slavery in the states.

4. Insisted that the territories must be kept
free.

5. Called for a railroad to the Pacific, and
a homestead law.

The election took place in November, 1860. Of
303 electoral votes cast,
Lincoln received 180; Breckinridge, 72; Bell, 39;
and Douglas, 12.

SUMMARY

1. The Compromise of 1850 did not settle the
question of slavery in the territories, and an attempt
to organize Kansas and Nebraska brought it up again.

2. In the organization of these territories a
new political doctrine, “popular sovereignty,”
was announced.

3. This was applied in Kansas, and the struggle
for Kansas began. The first territorial government
was proslavery. The antislavery men then made
a constitution (Topeka) and formed a free state government.
Thereupon the proslavery men formed a constitution
(Lecompton) for a slave state. This was submitted
to Congress and rejected, and Kansas remained a territory
till 1861.